Yep.  Now that the final contingent of the surge is in place as of last week, it seems that Harry Reid was a bit off in his announcement that Gen. Petraeus is "out of touch."  Evidently, while awaiting the full buildup, the man in command has been palpating the worst tumors in the patient's belly, and is now going in with axe and hacksaw.

The story of the first major offensive of the new campaign is front page, above the fold, in the NYT of Tuesday June 19, 2007.  Big stuff.  The sequel presents a brief excerpt, but the article must be read in full.  It needs no comment here, except to point out that the report is sober and factual.  There are no ripe clusters of adjectives such as "misguided, reckless, indiscriminate, appalling" and the like selected from the Gray  Lady's thesaurus of condemnation. Is "editorial judgment" no longer an oxymoron? Excerpt follows, with the standard admonition.

The report begins as follows:

June 19, 2007

Military Strikes Insurgents’ Positions East of Baghdad 

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAMIEN CAVE

BAQUBA, Iraq, Tuesday, June 19 — The American military began a major attack against Sunni insurgent positions here in the capital of Diyala Province overnight, part of a larger operation aimed at blunting the persistent car and suicide bombings that have terrorized Iraqis and thwarted political reconciliation.

The assault — by more than 2,000 American troops in Baquba and more than 10,000 in the overall operation — is unusual in its scope and ambition, representing a more aggressive strategy of attacking several insurgent strongholds simultaneously to tamp down violence throughout the country.

It reflects an acknowledgment that as fresh infusions of American troops focused on Baghdad in recent months, insurgents moved their bases outside the city. Commanders said the goal of the operation, which is called Arrowhead Ripper, was to break the cycle of sectarian killings and retribution that has swept Iraq.

The fighting is expected to be hard. By daylight today, attack helicopters and ground forces had killed 22 suspected insurgents in and around Baquba, the military said in a statement.

You already know the admonition: RTWT.

Webmaster's note: It looks like John was the victim of a bait 'n' switch at the Times. If you go to the URL he linked and scroll down far enough the text he quoted is still there but it looks like someone decided the original article was far too positive and did a major rewrite. I guess those multiple layers of editors have to justify their existence somehow.

Contributed by 72nd TCS on June 19, 2007 at 01:18 PM in Current Affairs, Iraq, Islamism Delenda Est, John "72nd TCS" Werntz | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: 72nd TCS

Thanks for your note, Bill. Actually, they didn't do the bait & switch. More like cherry-picking on my part. The wailing was there, but relatively minor. Some of it was old stuff.

I was perhaps overly impressed that they didn't bury the lede. In stark contrast to their usual practice, they put the good news first, and buried the view-with-alarm 'way down on the jump page. I'm pleased to observe any tendency toward reform.

Posted by: 72nd TCS | Jun 19, 2007 5:38:01 PM